with us any more because it can kill ya in a snap. sam andrew: it was inevitable and really surprising both at the same time. michael joplin: when she died of a heroin overdose it was really hard cause i didn't have a role model anymore. jim langdon: nobody was surprised, i wasn't surprised at her death but one of the most truly surprising surprising things about janis is life and death is that she's still with us. thirty seven years later no mater where you are in america you can flip on your car radio and at some point or another you're going to hear janis joplin singing. powell st. john janis was like a racecar driver. you win races and you get great adulation from the fans. but there's always the chance that they'll wipe out. john cooke: i had a dream where janis was on stage. and it was the end of the

set, the end of the encore. and, that was maybe a month or so after she died, and i felt like it was janis coming to say goodbye. janis came down the ramp, and there was this little girl needing approval and comfort and she said, "was it okay, was i okay?" and i said, "you were great!" [ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> bill: hello friends and neighbors! good thursday morning. great to see you this morning. early in the morning here on current tv. welcome to the "full court press." for the next three hours we'll be telling you all about the big stories of the day. whether it is happening here in our nation's capital around the country or around the globe we're on top of it. we'll give you a chance to tell us what you think about it at 1-866-55-press. there's lot going on this morning here in washington, yesterday, congressman jesse jackson jr. pleaded guilty to misuse of campaign funds. it looks like he and his wife will be spending some time in prison. very sad to see his career ruined like that. florida governor rick scott now says that he loves medicaid and the pentagon announced yesterday, because of the

sequester, it is ready to furlough 800,000 civilian pentagon employees around the world. that hurts! all of that and a whole lot more. but first let's find out what's really going on. lisa ferguson's got it. today's current news update. she joins us from los angeles. good morning lisa. >> good morning, bill. another light day for the president today. he's taking some meetings from the white house. first up is his usual daily briefing from the oval office. then he's meeting with his senior advisers and later this afternoon, president obama will record a radio interview with al sharpton joe madison and yolanda adams all in the oval office. a surprising change coming from florida. governor rick scott has announced he will back medicare expansion in the state. president obama's affordable care act requires all states to expand their programs but many republican governors are against doing so with scott proval being one of the most outspoken.

suddenly yesterday scott says he has reached a deal with the feds and will ask the state legislature to move forward with those changes. under scott's new proposal, the state will only commit to the first three years of the expansion with the federal government footing the cost of the bill. this makes scott only the seventh republican governor to back medicare expansion under the affordable care act. a new study from an economist at the congressional research service finds capital gains tax cuts are by far the biggest contributor to the wealth gap. from 1986 to 1996, capital gains were taxed at the same rate as regular wages but when it went down to just 15% that translated directly to an increase in income inequality. more bill up next. compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way

inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. the bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobster's lobsterfest. with the year's largest selection of mouth-watering lobster entrees. like our delicious lobster lover's dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. or our savory, new grilled maine lobster and lobster tacos. it's back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. my favorite entree is the lobster lover's dream. what's yours? come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently.

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>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 55% of americans now say they approve of president obama's performance as president. higher than it's been since september 2009. yeah republicans still think they can blame the sequester on him. what idiots. what do you say in hello everybody. hello, hello hello on a thursday morning. february 2 ^1. so good to see you today. thank you for joining us. it is the "full court press." and we are coming to you live from our nation's capital where some day members of congress will come back to work, some day they will recognize that the sequester is looming and there are disastrous consequences for the nation. some day, they will come back

and do their job. some day. some day maybe. but we're here. we'll tell you what's going on in our nation's capital. president still on the job around the country around the globe. we'll bring you up to date on the news of the day and give you a chance to tell us what you think about it all at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. look forward to your calls. phone lines start ringing as soon as we come on the air here this morning. that's good. we want to hear from you. want to hear from you on twitter, too, at bpshow. follow us on twitter. and friend us on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. more of you out there, the better. you join our team here, the whole team. four days in a row. oh my god. >> well, of some us had monday off. i'm not going to name any names. cyprian. >> bill: peter ogborn and dan henning. >> happy thursday.

>> bill: happy thursday. phil backert has the phones and cyprian bolding is here on the video cam keeping us there. the pictures as well as the sound coming out to you on your local progressive talk radio station, of course, on sirius x.m. this hour and on current tv. big announcement down at the white house yesterday. the white house correspondents association celebrating the fact that oscar pistorius is going to be the stand-up comic at this year's press conference -- i'm sorry. conan o'brien. i know it was one of those clowns. >> let me get excited. >> bill: let me get excited is right. i was really -- seth meyers did a great job. jimmy kimmel was great last year. conan. this is his second turn. jay leno has done it maybe twice.

so this is conan's repeat performance back in 1995 in the clinton years he talked about it. >> i got the invitation, i was thrilled i would be speaking in the same room with the most powerful man in the country. and then i heard judge ito canceled. but you move on. >> bill: judge ito presiding over the o.j. trial at the time. >> sign of the times. >> bill: wait until you hear the next clip. judge ito was the most famous man in the country at the time. let johnny cochran get away with the defense of o.j. if the glove don't fit you must acquit. conan o'brien talking about the fact he's a talk show host. >> i am a talk show host.

[ laughter ] i remember i was really excited to get my own talk show. then i found out roger ailes had one. come on, folks what's next? cooking with ira magaziner. >> bill: ira magaziner was hillary clinton's healthcare adviser at the time. he was the head of the hillary clinton task force. cindy borin, one of our favorites coming in studio, the sports blogger fore"the washington post" to talk about the oscar pistorius trial. we're also going to talk to one of the leaders of this firm called mandiant. lynn sweet was covering the jesse jackson jr. trial here in chicago. she became part of the story yesterday. her picture's in "the new york times" this morning.

she'll be joining us as well. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> on this thursday, other headlines making news, a big revelation from a former republican senator. pete domenici of new mexico who represented for 36 years until 2008 told the albuquerque journal that he fathered a son out of wedlock with the daughter of a former senator. >> bill: is my mic on? it is domenici. i'm sorry. let's please correct it. >> he told the albuquerque journal that he fathered a son out of wedlock with the daughter of a former senator. he kept that a secret for 30 years. the son is now an attorney in nevada. he's the grandson of a former nevada senator. and now 80 years old the senator is former six-term senator with eight kids with his

wife. he has apologized to her "as best he can." >> gee thanks. >> bill: i admire the fact that he supported the son. they kept it quiet. she raised the son. he's apparently a very successful attorney. >> pret impressive. >> bill: in nevada. somebody found out about it. they were going to put it up on twitter. they were going to nip it in the bud. >> remarkable they could keep it a secret for as long as they did. >> bill: i know senator lexall and his daughter and senator domenici. an emotional but happy morning on abc yesterday where robin roberts returned to the ank every chair at "good morning america" after being off the job for six months battling bone marrow disease. she welcomed her doctors on to the set as they continue to treat her. she's well enough to return to work and she also thanked her

bosses for keeping her job for her noting many americans come back from medical leave to find things have changed or no job at all. >> bill: that's a great story. so excited to see her back. and there were those in the industry who said she would never return. >> mm-hmm. >> bill: there she is. very inspiring. >> starbucks is known for some pricy menu selections but wait until you hear what one washington state man ordered from his barista this week. it is a quad -- it is a 52 ounce drink, 40 shots of espresso plus frappuccino soy drizzle. the cost, $47.50 for this cup of coffee. fox reports the man ordered it on his birthday just to see if they would actually make it for him. they did. as a present they actually gave it to him for free. >> imagine the amount of time it would take to make that drink!

>> 40 shot of espresso. that's a lot of work. >> you can't get a cup of coffee free on your birthday. >> this story has been going around for a couple of days now. >> bill: you know what? everybody will be in. hey, it's my birthday. >> everyone is going to try to outdo this guy. >> see if they can get a more expensive drink. >> i don't know that i would be bragging about making a drink at starbucks that costs almost $50. >> bill: no. i think starbucks is soon going to regret this decision here. just as we will all regret if congress allows the sequester to kick in which it really looks like it is going to do. and that is, of course ware eight days away now. that's next friday, march 1. you want to know -- some idea of what this will mean again just remember, we're talking $1.2 trillion in across the board cuts so you don't decide which

programs should we cut and which programs should we keep. some are working. you cut everything. meat ax approach. half of those $1.2 trillion cuts $82 billion a year. half of them will be out of domestic programs. head start medicare, social security, you know, library of congress national parks, across the board. half of them in the pentagon. the pentagon yesterday said okay, you want to this happen? here's what you got. you have a decline in military readiness for the united states. that's already started because ships that should have been deployed to the mediterranean have not been deployed because operations and maintenance on militaryaire craft has been postponed or delayed. that's really smart. they're going to cut back on training so new forces to replace existing forces in

afghanistan or iraq, for example. they're just not going to be ready to be deployed. and the pentagon said maybe most striking of all we have already sent out word to 800,000 civilian employees of the pentagon around the world. most of them in this country. a lot of them here in washington, d.c. and in northern virginia. sent word out that they're going to be furloughed which means in the beginning, they will have to cut back one day a week without pay. that's a 20% cut in their pay. one little example... i was told yesterday that if the sequester kicks in, for example there will be no easter egg roll at the white house this easter for the first time maybe -- whenever it started. because workers are going to be furloughed. >> really? >> bill: yeah.

>> no. oh man. >> bill: it is going to have a hell of an impact. the president has put out a plan with cuts, more cuts, yes. but also some more revenue like closing the loopholes on big oil companies, closing the loopholes on owners of corporate jets, all of those tax advantages but republicans in congress reject it. they say they'll have no more revenue. they'll prove no more closing of loopholes. no new taxes nothing. so if this happens as jay carney told us at the briefing yesterday, you know who to blame. >> if they hold that position and the sequester goes into effect, it will go into effect and those americans will lose their jobs because republicans made a choice for that to happen. >> bill: the president welcomed eight reporters from local television stations yesterday. yesterday, jay carney said here's why they called them in. >> congressional republicans will listen to the american people and that's why it is important to engage the american

people and not just speak to members of congress. you have to do both. >> bill: the president, at one of the interviews, this one was with kake out of wichita kansas saying look, it's got to be a combination of cuts in revenue. >> obama: nobody who is going to buy a corporate jet is going to not buy it because of a small tax break. >> the idea the republicans have to defend the owners of corporate jets, they would rather defend the owners of corporate jets than stand up for the 800,000 middle class americans, 800,000 of them working for the pentagon who are going to get a 20% pay cut. that's their priority. so given all of that, here's what really burns me and embarrasses me. if you follow me tweets from the white house pressroom you know how upset i got about it yesterday. even dropped the f bomb.

>> not safe sometimes. >> bill: what the republicans -- all the reporters do is repeat what the republicans are saying and then they think they're doing their job that way. the three crazy arguments the most -- the craziest of which is why doesn't the president -- why doesn't he call john boehner down to the white house for a meeting? why doesn't he call mitch mcconnell down to the white house for a meeting? oh, my god he hasn't met with john boehner so he can't be serious about stalling the sequester. what idiots! to repeat something like that. republicans are idiots to say it but reporters -- to repeat it. don't they remember during the first term how many meetings did president obama have? with john boehner. if you recall, he even came up to the capitol hill, he even talked to the house republican caucus trying to get their support for his stimulus package and boehner and mcconnell and eric cantor were down there at

the white house for meeting after meeting after meeting and what do they do every single time they walk out of the meetings, they walked up to the microphones at the stakeout position and they trashed obama dumped on obama stabbed him in the back. they never went for anything that he proposed. john boehner then met privately with the president three different occasions three different times. they made a deal. and then john boehner came back to the house. eric cantor said oh, no, you don't, buddy. john boehner reneged on the deal. what is the purpose of meeting with john boehner and mitch mcconnell? nothing is going to happen. the president's put a plan out there. erskine bowles and alan simpson who now are considered the gods of budget deficit they've had the same plan out there. it's gotta be cuts, yes. and it's gotta be new revenue and the republicans are saying no cut cut cut cut cut. no closing the loopholes for oil companies or the wealthiest of

americans. any meeting with john boehner and mitch mcconnell a freaking waste of time. 1-866-55-press. don't you think so? haven't we learned that? 1-866-55-press. i think president obama has learned it. he's not just going to have a photo op. have him down there so they look good. they know what they've got to do, damn it. 1-866-55-press. let's talk about it. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

>> bill: all right. 26 minutes after the hour now. by the way, i don't think it's funny that republicans think the way out of this is to blame president obama. john boehner calls it the president's sequester. who is he kidding? number one, it's not true. congress voted for it. boehner voted for it. number two, the president has a 55% approval rating today. what's the latest on congress? was it even 10%? >> i think it was single digits. >> bill: who is he kidding? what's the world of social media saying? >> on twitter at bpshow. we are taking your comments on the sequester. why don't we furlough congress, they never work anyway. >> bill: of course, legislative salaries are exempt. i just want to point that out. >> weird how that would happen. isn't that bizarre. >> sophie says hate to remind you, we were talking about some of the reporters are trying to make this out like obama -- sophie says some reporters and g.o.p. members just want to be

irresponsible so that they can look tough. >> bill: right. reporters think they're doing a job -- they take something that some insane republican has said and repeat it in the briefing room, that saves them a lot of homework. they just take something eric cantor said. you know who are the worst at that? the people in the front row. the ones who are supposed to be the best reporters in the business. elaine is calling from here in washington, d.c. hi elaine, good morning. >> caller: hi, bill. good morning, how are you? >> bill: i'm good. >> caller: bill, i'm so angry. i get so irate every time i just hear you know, more and more about the sequester. and it seems that what a lot of people are failing to realize and thank you, thank you for putting it out in the universe. for four years for four years the republicans gave the president their rear end to kiss. they said that their mandate

their main objective was to make him a one-term president. thank god the american people knew better! we knew better. i really think that all of this gerrymandering is going to come back to bite the republicans in their behind in 2014 because the american people are far more intelligent than they give us credit for. >> bill: well, elaine, you said it well. look although, elaine, let me add one other point. we had the election. the american people said they want to move forward with the obama agenda. once again the republicans are digging in their heels. you know what? the economy is going to go in the toilet. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way

inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

>> announcer: chatting with you live at current.com/billpress this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey it is 33 minutes after the hour here on a thursday morning. and vice president joe biden says you want a gun? get a shotgun. not an ar-15. we've got it all covered here this morning on the "full court press." we're talking about the fact that republicans still seem determined they really think they can let the sequester happen, let the economy go as the congressional office warns into a total tailspin, reverse our economic recovery, cut 700,000 jobs here in this country and the pentagon says 800,000 of their civilian employees around the world they really think they can let all of that happen and blame it on

president obama and not take any of the heat themselves when the american people know who voted for the sequester and who refuses to put it off, i believe. what do you think is going on? 1-866-55-press. back to your calls and your comments in just a second. how about this story. out of new york. identity theft well, a lot of people that you can't trust right, with your information. how about your relatives. not even that. a woman up in new york has been charged with identity theft after investigators discovered she had used a relative's name, date of birth and social security number to open a credit card online. identity theft protect yourself against it as i have with lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft available. even monitors your bank accounts. of course, lifelock can't monitor you or your bank account if you're not a member. so call now and mention press60. you'll get 60 risk-free days of

lifelock protection. call to cancel and they'll give you a refund. make the call 1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. peter, before we go back to the phones. >> earlier this week, we talked about sarah palin was going to be speaking at cpac. >> bill: yes they need a new face somebody new and inspiring, a new face for the republican party. >> they got one. yesterday they announced a new speaker at cpac. mitt romney. >> bill: another loser? >> another loser will be making an appearance at cpac. mitt romney is going to speak -- >> bill: oh, god. >> at cpac. >> bill: first of all what kind of a reception is he going to get at cpac? they didn't like him or want him. some of them probably didn't even vote for him. >> cpac is not his crowd. not even close.

the fact he will show up there now, i don't think that's going to turn out very well for mr. romney. >> i think you can probably hear some boos. >> bill: this is their big show in washington. they do it every year in march where they put forth the best faces from their point of view, the best faces of the republican party. >> they had the big straw poll. >> bill: the best the republican party has to offer. sarah palin and mitt romney. >> loser. >> bill: this party is not in trouble. >> no! >> bill: back to the sequester. it should not happen. it does not have to happen. if i had to bet today, it is going to happen. peter, calling from new york city. hey, peter. >> caller: hey bill, good morning. how are you? >> bill: thanks for joining us. what's your take on all of this? >> caller: my take is that i'm actually alarmed that we think that we can't cut $85 billion out of a $3.6 trillion budget or

to put it another way about 1/3 of 1% of the $17 trillion gross domestic product and think that this is going to crater our economy. if our economy is that weak, then there's been no recovery and what is the point anyway? if we're really concerned about the cuts, bill, why don't you advocate the president give all of the different departments to take the cuts and allocate it so it's best used so it is not across the board. >> bill: first he can't do that. of the sequester is legislation passed by congress which calls for across-the-board cuts. the president can't unilaterally rewrite legislation. so that's the first thing my response to you peter is first of all, i would say -- the congressional budget office says it is going to shrink the economy by 1.3%. it is going to reverse our economic recovery and it is

going to put us in a re-- recession. you're saying you know more than they do. that was number one. number two the pentagon yesterday saying $800,000 -- 800 civilian employees of the pentagon will be cut furloughed. that's a 20% cut in their pay. that's real, dude. that's not make up. number three is -- these are across-the-board cuts. that's the point. erskine bowles, no flaming liberal, he and alan simpson right, the gods of budget deficit said yesterday which i think he's correct no business in this country would make across the board spending cuts. what you do is you look for where you should cut and where you shouldn't cut. your response? >> caller: obama signs the bill. >> bill: b.s. let me tell you something. yeah, who passed the bill? john boehner voted for it. eric cantor voted for it. paul ryan voted for it. he signed the bill because it was the only way they could

avoid the debt ceiling. john boehner said when the sequester passed, peter get your head out of your ass. he said he got 98% of what he wanted in the sequester. it is john boehner's baby. ann's calling from buffalo new york. >> caller: good morning. i think the last caller answered part of my question. is anybody following up on what the constituents of these republicans are saying now that they're home doing their town meetings or whatever? >> bill: first of all ann, if you think they're home doing their town meetings, i got a bridge i'll sell you. they're on the beach somewhere. i think they're not listening ann. i think that's the point. they're not listening to the constituents or they wouldn't support the sequester. >> caller: okay. another thing dawned on me. the news i'm hearing is oh, you

know this sequester is terrible. it is terrible. it is obama's idea but isn't it a good idea? >> bill: the sequester? no it's not a good idea to take a meat ax -- you wouldn't do it to your family budget. no business would do it to their corporate budget. we should not do it to the government. the president put -- again economy back, alan simpson, erskine bowles, every group that's looked at this and the president himself has said the only way to any long-term deficit reduction is a balanced approach of spending cuts and new revenue. the republicans are saying no, we will not allow any new revenue. we will not allow -- what we're talking about here is getting the new revenue by closing tax loopholes that the big oil companies have. these are just two of them. by closing loopholes on -- or

three. businesses that export jobs overseas and the tax advantages that they get by taking their jobs and their money overseas and thirdly by the owners of corporate jets. why should they get a tax deduction for being wealthy enough to own a corporate jet? meanwhile, again you have 800,000 middle class civilian employees who are going to get a 20% pay cut. so what are your priorities? no it's not a good idea. donald calling from aurora, illinois. good morning donald. >> caller: good morning. the thing that gets me is pretty much what you've said. i've watched these reporters too. they'll hammer at president obama. i don't see them hammering at john boehner. >> bill: no. they swallow hit of his rhetoric. >> caller: oh, yeah. of but the american people are really -- they don't have a clue to say that they're waking up, they are not. when you see north carolina putting in a governor, a

republican -- another republican governor that automatically the minute he is in, he starts getting rid of the unemployment compensation that tells me the american people have not woken up yet. unfortunately, the president is going to get the blame for this whole thing. i have a feeling. the democratic party since you don't hear a word from them. >> bill: don i'm with you all the way until the end. i think republicans are kidding themselves if they think they're going to be able to blame this whole thing on president obama. because i think again, it is pretty clear we know -- we know who adopted it. we know who praised it. we know who championed it. it was john boehner and company and paul ryan of the so-called budget hawks. they made it so disastrous that they thought nobody could ever, ever, ever go along with this. now they reversed themselves and say let's do it. i think the american people know whose fingerprints are all over

this baby. i just hope that they come to their senses beforehand and it doesn't happen. there is other stuff in the news. when we come back, jesse jackson jr. and his wife both on trial here in washington, d.c. yesterday, lynn sweet who knows chicago politics and has covered chicago politics better than anybody else alive joins us in the next segment. she was in the courthouse yesterday. she talked to congressman jackson. she'll tell us all about it. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

the bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobster's lobsterfest. with the year's largest selection of mouth-watering lobster entrees. like our delicious lobster lover's dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. or our savory, new grilled maine lobster and lobster tacos. it's back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. my favorite entree is the lobster lover's dream. what's yours? come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently.

(vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything.

>> bill: it was sad to seat former congressman jesse jackson jr. in the courtroom yesterday. his father sitting in the courtroom and jesse jackson jr. saying and pleading guilty and admitting i lived off my campaign. also in the courtroom nobody knows chicago politics or covers it more closely than our good friend lynn sweet. washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times." i don't think we've ever had a guest on the show whose picture has been in "the new york times" that morning. but we congratulate lynn sweet and welcome her to the program. hi lynn. >> good morning, bill. >> bill: did you see your picture in the new york times? >> no. tell me what you're talking about. >> bill: you'll have to get the print edition of "the new york times" on page a17 and you are there taking a cell phone photo of the reverend

jesse jackson sitting in his car. >> really? i will look. >> bill: all right. there you go. so lynn, there's no doubt right, reverend jesse jackson and his wife, what are they both accused of what have they both admitted? >> you mean former congressman. jesse jr. >> bill: sorry. right. >> they pled guilty to a 7-year scheme of using his -- mainly his congressional campaign fund plus other money that flowed into them from other sources for their personal use and former alderman sandy jackson was charged with a count of income tax fraud for not reporting this money. and jesse had the book thrown at him for a variety of conspiracies to execute this

scheme. >> bill: they were buying weird stuff, right? >> well, yes! some of it -- you know, i'm used to campaign spending where maybe you finagle and you buy you know, you use it to cover meals. >> bill: exactly. >> things that are personal in nature. then you say we really were discussing campaign business. okay. this was out and out buying appliances at a chicago store electronics from best buy. vacation at disney. and then yes the weird stuff memorabilia from jimi hendrix michael jackson -- >> bill: and the rolex. >> a $43,000 rolex. then we learned even more on -- in the proceedings yesterday. let's see. just to name a few. costco -- included

undergarments, toilet paper and cleaning supplies. from the mundane to the magnificent. clothes from high-end stores. i don't have the list in front of me but it is just stuff. >> bill: now they had to -- i've known jesse jackson jr. not as well as you. i always admired him. bright young man. thought he had a great future ahead of him. and his wife on the city council. they had to know what they were doing was wrong right? how do you explain it? >> i don't know how you think it is right. they also used some of the money to pay their kid's private school tuition. they used the money for furniture. they used the money for stuff in their home in dupont circle. so i can't imagine they thought it was right especially since the scheme was far more elaborate than i ever imagined it would be.

meaning -- nothing ever showed up on the s.e.c. reports is he made up a false report. >> bill: yeah. >> so false s.e.c. report then you have a phony statement of economic interest that you filed before congress. you have to know that's not right. >> bill: and then false filings. i want to play a quick clip of something his attorney yesterday, reed weingarten said afterwards. i'm a sure you were there. explaining his partial explanation for it. >> those health issues are directly related to his present predicament. that's not an excuse. that's just a fact. >> bill: so can you blame it on health issues that he recently had, do you think? >> it is really the subject of a substantial argument in june during his sentencing so the u.s. attorney for washington was asked about that yesterday. the press conference.

he looked okay to me. he had one of the best attendance records in congress. he was able to make a speech at the '08 democratic national convention. he didn't look that bad. that's a pretty good comeback. also this is a 7-year scheme. from 2005 until 2012. he really -- if he was that sick -- maybe they'll say he had a spending addiction or something. >> bill: now, just to bring you up to date on more of the publicity that you have this morning. you may not have read dana millbanks column in the post but he also mentions you and the fact that apparently as a former congressman was leaving the courtroom, he spied you and had a message that he wanted you to deliver. >> yes. that's the kicker of my column in the "chicago sun-times." he came to me. it was rather dramatic moment, bill. he came up to me.

he took my hand. he held it. and he said and you have the quote in front of you. so tell me the quote exactly o o -- >> bill: tell my friends in chicago i'm sorry i let them down. >> tell everybody back home sorry i let them down. okay. i looked at him. i didn't say anything back. because i was surprised. i had not talked to him since before june when he disappeared. so it was a dramatic moment. and it is sad. >> bill: it is sad. >> but the enormity of this scheme he carried out was something breathtaking. >> bill: did his father make any comment? >> no. he pressed the mute button yesterday. very disciplined. very sad for him. >> bill: lynn sweet, thank you so much for joining us this morning. you can always follow lynn on twitter and you should because she's in the middle of the action wherever she is. follow at lynn sweet. you can read everything she

writes on the suntimes.com. thanks lynn. good work. go get "the new york times." you're famous. talk to you soon. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv. >> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: speaking about the party of no, richard maxwell says republicans aren't just a party of no, they're a party of no to obama.

wayne b wants to know what's wrong with mr. orange and mr. turtle? i know who mr. orange is. i had to think about mr. turtle but mitch mcconnell does look like a turtle. i hadn't thought about it. he says what's wrong with them is they're both dick cheney-like. and martin wants to know what would happen if i took a vacation in colorado, smoked pot then came back to maryland and was chosen for random drug testing? would the fact that he smoked it in a state where it is legal save him? the answer quickly is no. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> bill: good morning friends and neighbors. good to see you today. it is thursday, february 21. thanks for joining us here on the "full court press." welcome to the program as we come to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our nation's capital washington, d.c. and our studio on capitol hill. we'll bring you up to date on all of the news of the day and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. there is a lot going on. we'll cover it all. jesse jackson jr. plead guilty to the misuse of campaign funds. he and his wife could both face time in prison. here is a big reversal. florida governor rick scott now says he loves medicaid. wants to expand it in florida. of course in florida. and we're only eight days away now from the sequester kicking in with 800,000 pentagon jobs on

the line. but republicans don't care. they'll let it happen. we'll get into all of that and talk sports with cindy borin. first, let's get the latest, lisa ferguson out in los angeles. standing by with today's current news update. good morning, lisa. >> hey bill. good morning everyone. president obama still dealing with the backlash from marco rubio over his leaked immigration proposal. he's telling spanish language tv the leak did not damage negotiations with the senate. leaks happen all the time and it will not stop talks from moving forward. important to note during all of this back and forth obama's plan is the first to actually specify a means to citizenship. it is a slow path. immigrants would first need a green card which can take decades. anyone in the country illegally would go straight to the back of that line. they would still abe allowed to live and work here but would not get federal benefits. obama's plan is much more strict than president reagan's immigration control and reform act from 1986.

the average wait for citizenship then was about six and a half years. under president obama's plan, it would take about 13. ratings for the president are at another high. a bloomberg poll finds 55% of americans approve of the job he's doing. that's the highest since september of 2009, just a few months after he first took office. some quick fund-raising totals for you. the dnc riddled with debt after this last election but it did raise more than $4 million in january. the rnc has a total of $7.1 million in the bank and the nra pulled in $1.1 million last month making for its largest fund-raising haul since august of last year. more bill press coming up after the break. stay with us. alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one

party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: president obama with the highest approval rating since september of 2009. 55% of americans approve of his job as president. compare that to, i think it's 9% approve of the job congress is doing. that says it all doesn't it? good morning everybody. welcome, welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv this thursday morning. good to see you. we will bring you up to date on all of the news of the day including the sports news of the day here at the top of this hour and then take your calls at 1-866-55-press. welcome your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook.com/billpressshow. and welcome back to the program. back to the studio. the early lead sports blogger

for "the washington post," cindy boren. nice to see you. >> good morning. >> bill: nice you've become a regular here. at least we're trying to make it that. >> you put me with the coffee. >> that's right. you complimented our coffee. >> first guest who ever complimented our coffee. >> it shows that my tolerance is really -- >> well, you work in a newsroom at the "washington post." >> i'm a sportswriter. >> the newsrooms are notorious for horrendous coffee. >> the sports people are the worst. >> bill: our team here, peter ogborn and dan henning and phil backert on the phones and also the coffeepot. >> barista. >> bill: cyprian bolding is our videographer keeping us looking good. >> it is a hard job. john mccain didn't have such a good day yesterday. he was back home in arizona

where they had this blizzard at the golf tournament. >> tucson. >> bill: what tournament was that? >> the world match play. >> yeah, bill, you didn't know that? >> match play golf is odd. it is not like usual ordinary golf that most americans are used to seeing. it is interesting. unfortunately tiger woods didn't get a chance to even start yesterday because rain started falling and we said oh, this is interesting. it is raining in arizona then the next thing you know, i can't see anything. it was really coming down there. >> bill: full-scale blizzard. john mccain probably would have preferred to have been on the golf course. he was at a town hall meeting yesterday. he was for immigration when president bush was in the white house. when he was against immigration reform under president obama. the first term. now, he's back and for immigration reform. his constituents weren't too happy. one of them challenging him about why they don't build a fence. >> build a dang fence. where's the fence? >> in case you missed it, i

showed you -- >> that's not a fence. >> that's not a fence. it is a banana. we're putting up a banana. about $600 million worth of appropriations that we have. >> bill: mccain has gotten so grumpy. when he ran for president in 2000, at those town hall meetings, i covered him in new hampshire. i traveled on that bus with him. he was so good at those town hall meetings. he was on top of it. people challenged him and he always had a good answer. little sense of humor. >> it's not a fence. it's a banana. >> that's one way to handle it, i guess. >> bill: stick it in your ear. cindy here to start off the hour. little bit later, we'll be talking to one of the representatives of man mandiant that came out with the story of the hacking from the chinese military.

bob will be here as a "friend of bill" next hour. >> our headlines making news on this thursday. hillary clinton will not be missing her secretary of state salary of $186,000 per year. "buzzfeed" reporting on the speaking circuit she'll be earning north of $200,000 per speech. there is a very exclusive group of people who make that much that includes her husband, bill clinton and former governor arnold schwarzenegger also earns over $200,000 a speech. >> arnold? >> you can't understand what he's saying. at this point in the game, he's tarnished. >> bill: what does he have to say? >> i'll be back. >> good morning. >> behind that, former president -- >> bill: california. >> this is not a tumor. >> former president george w. bush, dick cheney and al gore make between $100,000 and $200,000 per speech. >> bill: pretty good for hillary. she gives one speech and takes the rest of the year off.

>> i don't think it works that way. >> a white house correspondent's association has chosen the headliner for its annual dinner at the end of april. it is conan o'brien. the late night comedian from trail blazers will appear at the nertd prom for the second time. he was last there when bill clinton was president. he is also now working with the correspondent's association on initiatives focused on its scholarship fund. >> bill: i'll still buy tickets even though i'm not excited about conan o'brien. >> it is a letdown. >> conan is an interesting guy. i think his show is pretty funny but his monologues are horrible. he gives a really terrible monologue so the fact they're going to put him up there by himself, i don't think it will turn out. >> bill: it is a tough crowd. >> drivers in los angeles will hopefully be having an easier commute this morning. mayor antonio villaraigosa

flipped a switch that will synchronize every traffic light in the city so all signals working with one another in sync for the best traffic flow possible across los angeles. they say the new system will save each l.a. driver 24 hours of sitting in traffic a year. >> whoa! >> they say they'll get an entire day back. >> is that all we have to do is flip a switch in this town? >> bill: synchronizing traffic lights is so smart! so few cities do it. san francisco, 19th avenue and san francisco. because i use it a lot going from marin to the airport. if you get the right flow and the right speed, you can go all the way through on the green lights. look at here in washington d.c. why don't they do it? >> this is an honest question. why wouldn't you do it? what are the reasons? >> it is fun to play roulette. >> there are days when you do hit all of them on green. >> yeah, yeah. >> exactly. >> i won!

>> bill: cindy boren, there's so much happening in the sports world. we have the tragic story down under of another sports figure in serious serious trouble. and another hero, role model right. suddenly showing a darker side. what's your take on the oscar pistorius situation? guilty as charged? >> i'm not sure. i've been watching this bail hearing and it is only a bail hearing. we haven't gotten to the trial yet. with great interest. you know, on tuesday, it seems that the defense has really sort of taken it to the prosecution on this. the prosecution has put forward on investigator who we learned overnight is being charged with attempted murder. he and other investigators fired into a van 18 months ago. >> how did that happen? >> how do you not know that about this guy. he had some sort of past history

with pistorius on an assault charge hauling him in on an assault charge that turned out to not amount to anything. and then also there were questions about the way he handled the investigation. he was tromping around through the crime scene without any covering on his shues. >> bill: this sounds like the o.j. trial. >> it does. >> bill: you it you were it against the cops and forget about the crime that was committed. >> well, yeah. i kept thinking about that today. i was thinking about reis a stein camp -- reeva steenkamp. who is going to bring her justice? they won't succeed in proving he should be held without bail. i don't know that they've succeeded in proving premeditation and whatever happened here. >> bill: so in this case, just so our viewers and listeners understand, the decision will be should he be released on bail or not. then they still have to go to the trial where the question is did he, in premeditated murder kill his girlfriend. >> it seemed to have accelerated

really quickly considering that -- they jump to premeditated murder faster than i remember seeing in cases like this. usual will i they take time to figure this stuff out. it is quick. >> they can also reduce it. it is just a judge that they're appearing before. he can change that. it seems that a mistake they made in trying to prove the premeditation was in going with all of this minute evidence that hasn't really been processed even yet. murder happened a week ago. >> bill: he got the steroids. it was testosterone. >> it had the word testosterone in it. the prosecutors had to admit it hasn't fully been processed by the lab yet. okay. that's unfortunate. >> bill: at the same time, i have to say, i just don't buy his story that he thought it was an intruder who had locked himself in his bathroom and he shot four times through the door. if you shoot once through the

door, you're going to hear the woman scream. right? she's in the bathroom and he shoots throughout door? she's not going to say anything? >> i would think so. if you read though, the affidavit that he had submitted on tuesday and the bail hearing it is plausible. i will say that. i'm not sure i believe him. i'm still trying to keep an open mind about this and figure out what happened and analyze the evidence as it comes out. as best i can across the ocean from south africa. reading his statement, it is very very plausible. and it is up to the prosecution to poke holes in that. and show that when he says he was out on the balcony no, he actually wasn't. he knew that she wasn't in the bed. he knew that she was in the bathroom. so far they haven't done it. this isn't a trial. it is just trying to prove premeditation. >> bill: i keep turning back to shooting through a locked bathroom door. >> the room was very dark. how do you not know where she is?

and don't you yell? don't you say something? >> bill: doesn't she -- again i come back to she's behind the door and he goes 20 feet away to that bathroom, it wasn't like right alongside of the bed. >> right. there are questions -- forensically whether the bullets were fired by someone who was standing on his prosthetic legs or someone who was standing on his stumps. there are all of these issues. there was a spent cartridge found in the toilet. no one has accounted for. it is just -- i'm not sure that they've actually done much to move the blame away from pistorius. to admit that he shot her. where do you go from here with this? do you say it was like the equivalent -- the american equivalent of a manslaughter charge? i don't know. >> bill: i think where we go is we have to watch it from

afar. he will get out on bail probably. >> tomorrow they said they will announce tomorrow. the question is whether he would flee the country. the judge seemed to pooh-pooh that idea. >> bill: i think in that case, the judge had a point. this guy who is known around the world and wears these prosthetic legs, these blades, right that he could escape somewhere in the world and people wouldn't know where he was? >> we were talking about this with you last week, i think we talked about how nike was going to stand by him. nike has dropped him. >> and oakley. they dropped him first. and now nike has. >> bill: after this, we're going to have to wait for the trial and wait for the evidence and see if the prosecution can make its case. >> they have not had a good day. >> bill: but i've already made up my mind. guilty as charged. [ laughter ] >> bill: judge and jury. we have so much more to talk

about. before we take a quick break monday at -- monti te'o -- >> this week, nfl scouting where all of the college players who are eligible for the nfl draft go to indianapolis. it is like an athletic pageant. >> bill: did he bring his girlfriend with him? >> oh, she goes everywhere. >> very cheap to fly with her. >> bill: is this going to impact the decision do you think? that whole scandal? >> i don't think so. if i were a football evaluator i would be more concerned with the fact that he was horrible in the bcs game against alabama. he was the imaginary player in that game. he was just a ghost. >> didn't show up. >> yeah, he didn't. i would be more concerned with that. i don't think naivete is enough to say i'm going to pass on this guy. >> bill: how about the fact that he's gay? >> well, no.

i don't think that would. i think they're getting -- i'm not sure -- i'm not sure that would really -- >> bill: by the way we don't know. >> you're saying that. >> bill: i'm saying some people said that was the reason why he was making something out of it. theoretically. >> i think you've had brandon ayanbadejo in here. i think it is unrealistic to think there are gay players in every single sport. i don't think that would be a factor. the bottom line in the nfl if you can play, you can play. >> it is not some monster scandal that he's involved in. >> they will test him. up one side and down the other. >> bill: and maybe -- get your take on the biggest sports event of the decade. tiger woods playing golf with president obama. cindy boren is our guest. sports blogger for "the washington post." i'm sure you have questions or comments 1-866-55-press. give us a call. >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv.

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>> obama: i don't think he was nervous. he knew i wasn't a big threat to his world ranking. and i knew i better keep my day job. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: that of course was president obama talking about his round of golf with tiger woods last weekend. cindy boren wishes she was there. she's the sports blogger for "the washington post." you would have been the only other reporter there. none of our -- my colleagues in the white house press corps cindy, were allowed to seat

president, right or to see tiger. >> it was somewhat amusing to see how angry they were about that. about not being allowed in there >> bill: if i paid money to go down there to cover the president and ended up sitting in a bus for three days, i would be pretty businessed off too. >> golf channel guy i always enjoy that when a sportswriter gets to jump the line. it happens so infrequently. >> bill: but it was pretty cool to know the two of them played golf. tiger, we played a clip yesterday. the president plays a pretty mean round of golf. >> he would have a pretty good stick if it weren't for that silly little job of being the president. dealing with the sequester. you know. i don't know. some other stuff. >> bill: his golf game is not exactly the golf game that we used to hear about with bill clinton. >> he's a serious competitor. he's serious on the basketball court. he's serious on the golf course. he even took some lessons with

butch harmon who was tiger woods' former swing guru back when he was -- >> back when he was good? >> yeah, really, really good and winning -- let's say winning all the time. and he took some lessons with him. >> bill: big blow for women last weekend with danica patrick, qualifying. >> she won the pole position for sunday's daytona 500. 196 and change. you can do that on the beltway. >> bill: i've seen people do it. i've seen motorcycles do it on the beltway. so she's the odds on favorite to win? >> not necessarily. the pole position, it is great she was so fast. it is fantastic. it means she's got a good card and a good ride. the pole position isn't traditionally a position of strength. i think it's been at least ten years since someone has won daytona from the pole. it is great to be really fast

but it's also great to not have any collisions with anyone else. and that's -- that has been sort of the rap on her. she has to go 500 miles on sunday without wrecking. >> bill: so what sport did you play in college or high school? >> i wasle to ranly -- i wasle to ranly decent at tennis. >> no stock car racing? >> i would be a great stock car driver. i really would be. >> bill: on the beltway? >> i would be fantastic. >> bill: cindy borne great to have you as bort of the program. cindy boren is where you follow her. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one

party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

>> announcer: chatting with you live at current.com/billpress. this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour on thursday morning february 21. great to have you with us this morning. bloomberg is out with a new poll this morning showing president obama's approval rating, his popularity is up at 55% which is the highest it's been since september 2009. the latest poll from gallup on the approval rating for members of congress is 15% which i think is too damn high. ppp poll had it at 9% i think maybe a month before. so who are these members of congress? who are the 9% who think they're doing a good job is the real question. but the "national journal" has looked at the members of congress recently and tried to rank them as to the most

liberal, the most conservative, where everybody fits in. they've covered them all. and the man that did that reporting, alex, is congressional correspondent for "national journal" joining us now in our studio. hey, alex, good to see you. >> thanks for having me on. >> bill: let's start with our friends, the most liberal in the senate, the most liberal. any doubt? barbara boxer certainly up there. i think senator blumenthal from connecticut. one of the top there too. you know it's interesting. >> bill: bernie sanders? >> bernie sanders is up there. you have to remember with our rankings, just to let people know, it is only one year that we're look at. so this traditionally can stir a little controversy. we see it among conservatives the last few years. we've had john mccain as one of our most conservative members. you guys might consider him

there but a lot of people like eric erickson, a red state consider him a rhino. there's always some controversy but you know, all in all it is kind of a good way to see how they voted at least just last year. >> bill: is there any doubt then -- let's stick to the senate among the most conservative members of the senate ted cruz is going to be on the list this year. probably not already there. he hasn't been there a year. >> right. i think is safe to say ted cruz will pop into the top five. >> bill: how about last year? at least a few of them. >> i think you're talking about senators particularly from a state like idaho someone like that, i mentioned john mccain is up there. we see a big change in him as i'm sure most people know from how he voted ten years ago to how he's voting today. that makes -- that makes a big difference. >> bill: inhoff? >> inhoff is certainly up there.

you know, the way we determine these rankings, we basically go through and we look for areas where you kind of see separation among the members. routinely, you get a party line vote. we're not as interested in that. we're interested in finding you know, a member who -- you know, maybe the conservative part of the republican conference kind of splits off, you know. that's where you get like -- members like james inhofe, vote to fund planned parenthood or maybe of some his more liberal colleagues. maybe there aren't many left anymore. >> bill: what do you do with a guy like lindsey graham who was never known as an extreme right-winger but has turned into one. >> it's interesting. like you said, he has a primary this year. he's up for re-election this year. and i think you see it a lot with how he's handling benghazi in particular. he's always been seen as this national security conservative.

and he's really trying to bolster that. right now. and you will see that in the rankings. john mccain is a perfect example. when he had a primary in 2010 we saw change in how he voted. he just can't get away from breaking from the party's ranks the way he could two or three years earlier. >> bill: let's move over to the house. okay, among the democrats in the house, who immediately -- what are the names -- barney frank is gone. he would have been there. who are the ones who are remaining that you would list as -- which are the names that pop into your head? >> you know, i think what's interesting is if you look at the republican conference, you have someone like chris gibson in new york. he's one of the few members actually who voted more liberally than a lot of democrats. that's kind of what's interesting about our rankings

this year. there are very few -- there were 435 members of the house. you expect a lot of -- basically to be mixed up a little bit. certainly more than you would in the senate because you assume that there are still some republicans representing liberal areas and still some democrats representing conservative areas. that's really not the case anymore. we're talking about you know, maybe 15 lawmakers in total who sort of crossed ideological lines. chris gibson in new york who will have a tough re-election next year is one of them. on sort of the democratic side. someone like dan borin who was a lawmaker in oklahoma, the most conservative democrat last year. it's interesting. i spoke with congressman boren and he said -- he actually retired. very strange. he's only 39 years old. interesting. he basically didn't see any hope for any sort of bipartisan

compromise for the next two years. if that's not going to happen, there is no reason for me to stick around. which is kind of -- it is an interesting signal for a guy who's not even 40. typically, you would expect him to have a decade-long career. >> bill: the ones who pop into my head. henry waxman. keith ellison would be on that list. donna edwards i believe. jan schakowsky. who else, peter? we know so many of them. a lot of them from california. i'm sorry. barbara lee. maxine. >> maxine. >> nancy pelosi. naturally. >> bill: up to her. sam farr.

good friend. i'm sure there are others. just ones that i think of -- without pausing to think. you expect the democrats to be, of course, on the more liberal side. among the most conservative, it has to be paul ryan right. followed by -- >> tricky for him because he missed a lot of votes last year on the campaign trail. but paul ryan is certainly a guy who ranks pretty highly on that. >> you know, it's interesting some of the most conservative members don't necessarily register as far. you see someone like justin amash, especially along libertarian-leaning republicans in some ways because if you look at maybe the foreign policy, they sort of get pointed deducted from there because there is sort of a ron paul model there. and also you have to keep in mind a lot of the guys break away from leadership a great deal. so that -- it creates a

situation where someone like justin amash who is a conservative member does rank more toward the middle. >> he's also butted heads a lot with other republicans so it is interesting that he's on that list. >> bill: the question comes down to, ppp says it is a 9% approval rating. there are stds in this country that are thought of more highly. if it's 15% with gallup, is the congress -- members of congress, are they aware of that? do they care? is there any way? you've written about this. is there any way that they can restore their reputation? the way they're going? >> well, look, i think avoiding something like the debt ceiling showdown or the sequester or making sure that the basic functions of government work, again, would probably go a long way toward that. if you were the average person at home and you're sort of

paying attention casually, all you've heard the last few years is legislative gridlock. nothing happening and basically -- >> bill: fiscal cliff. moving from one fiscal crisis -- to another. >> every time, the dangerous look, if they don't act our economy's going to implode. so right now you know, it kind of looks like all they're doing is hurting -- they're not actually achieving anything. right now. is that starting to sink in? i think a little bit. you have to remember for a lot of these members particularly on the republican side, they're focused on a primary. right now. that's where their danger is. they're in a very safe seat and they probably have a sort of very strong, conservative base. you know who's really watching them closely to make sure they don't stray from the ideological line too much. but -- and this is the reason. i want to qualify this but some optimism and maybe this year can be a little different.

that it is starting to sink in that these members -- look, they don't want to be part of the most unpopular institution in america. that does start to weigh on them a little bit. >> bill: one wonders. i think a big test is looming right now. eight days away. the sequester which congressional budget office says we'll put this economy again in a tailspin. it will get us back to a recession this year. they're calling it a recession this year will occur if the sequester kicks in. and is congress really, really concerned about this? i think the answer is where are they this week? >> not here. >> bill: exactly. >> the capitol was almost like a tomb walking standard yesterday. >> bill: they're not here. the fact that they're not here and they don't come back until tuesday, i think is all you need to know about whether this congress really cares about the sequester or its reputation. we'll get more into this. this congress -- are you part of

the 9% or the 91%? what do they have to do, i guess, to get back to have any respect? alex roarty is with "national journal." we'll take your calls and comments coming up next. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say they thinking?

current tv is the place for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: bob cusack from the hill, managing editor will be here as a "friend of bill" in the next hour. we're talking about congress,

what abysmal ratings they have and how they might dig their way out of that. talking with alex roarty from the "national journal." back to your calls and comments in just a second. but first our little top of the segment here, we want to give a listener shout out to one of our listeners who heard what we were talking about in terms of earning some extra money from home. incomeathome.com. it is working for her. i'm talking about melissa. she's one of our listeners. she felt she was in a job where she was spending too much time away from home, away from her kids not making enough money. she heard about incomeathome.com. decided to give it a try and now she reports she is earning double what she earn in the her old job. she loves being at home. being with her kids. setting her own hours and working from her own kitchen table with other own laptop. melissa, big shout out to her and we're looking for our next shout out person. that could be you. if you're tired of living

paycheck to paycheck and working long hours at a job you don't like incomeathome.com would like to hear from you. visit incomeathome.com. that's incomeathome.com. you could be our next shout out. peter, what's up? >> we were talking about the most -- extreme liberal and conservative members of congress. we got one comment here from dw17176 on twitter where you can find us at bpshow. says extremes will never get their way so both need to compromise and bring moderates to the table. that's one way to look -- when you look at who's the most liberal and who's the most conservative, those people will never actually get their way. those people help the moderates lean one way or the other. >> bill: there used to be moderates in the congress. not sure there are that many of them left. i want to come back to this question. two things, alex. thank you again for coming in today. about how congress might improve their image.

i want to really go out on a limb. a really bold suggestion. how about if they get to work? >> that would probably help. >> bill: i mean in a good week, they're here -- i know so many of them. they're here two and a half days. they come back tuesday. and usually the only thing on the agenda on tuesday is they have to check in to vote so they get their per diem. they do a little bit of work on wednesday. they do a little bit of work on thursday. the ones from california, my state, they're on the plane thursday afternoon. they're home. everybody else. they're out of here. very rare they work -- five days a week? >> right. very rare. >> i think it is the sort of thing like the average person, it infuriates them because they're not working two or three days a week. they're not making what most members of congress do. looks there are just a multitude of reasons why congress is just historically unpopular right now. it is kind of amazing that it has gotten to this point where

really only it seems now do a lot of congressmen, kind of look up saying maybe we ought to do something to change this. >> bill: then the second point is there's something else going on. i want to write a column on this one of these days. that is redistricting. while we're looking over here, the state legislatures are over here and they're redrawing lines to such a way that you have some districts -- you could be -- as a democrat, it didn't matter what you did. you could not lose your district. you got every freakin' democrat within, you know, 50 miles or something. the other districts you're a republican and no matter what you did, you could not lose. those kind of districts people have no obligation to compromise or to -- they just follow their districts, right? >> like i mentioned earlier republican side and the democratic side, you know, they have more to worry about a

primary challenge. they're going to win the general election. say some full-blown scandal they're not going to lose the general election to the other party. they have to worry about their primary. when they're lining up to vote, they're not thinking what is sort of good for the middle of the country. they're thinking what is good for my base? >> bill: for the sequester even though the sequester -- would be a freakin' disaster, but like the tea party people, they don't give a damn because they know that they could never lose by voting against the sequester. they're never going to get -- they will not in jeopardy by voting against the sequester. >> you have to remember what is a sequester is a major spending cut, right. that's what they've been campaigning on. >> bill: meat ax across the board spending cuts. >> that's what they've been trying to achieve. that's what they've been campaigning on even before 2010 is the birth of the tea party. this, in a lot of ways is what they want. it is why you see republicans by in large, have lined up

behind it now. >> bill: right. it looks -- it does look like it's going to happen. >> right. right now, the president is offering a way to abate it by, you know, mix sure of spend -- mixture of spending cuts. >> bill: short-term extension. >> republicans right now any sort of revenue increase. >> bill: they think they can blame it on president obama. i'm not sure the american people will buy that. we're eight days away. alex, nice to see you. thanks for coming in. alex covers congress for "national journal." you can follow him of course at nationaljournal.com and he's on twitter just like we are. at alex underscore roarty. roarty is r-o-a-r-t-y. always a link to our guests on our web site to make it easy. i'll come back and tell you what's on the president's agenda today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. in the next hour, bob cusack from the hill is going to be here as a "friend of bill" for the entire hour. and then we'll be joined by dan mcrecorder from mandiant which showed the extent of hacking of american corporation and newspapers and government allegation by the chinese military. pretty scary stuff. we'll learn all about it. president obama busy day today. he gets the daily briefing at

9:30 this morning. then meeting with his senior advisers late this morning. he will be conducting three -- yesterday was eight local tv interviews with local affiliates. today, three radio interviews with reverend al sharpton, joe madison and yolanda adams all three, friends of ours. the press briefing today with jay carney will be at 1:00 p.m. so, lots more to cover on the sequester and other issues coming up in our final hour together of today's "full court press." stick around. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the next wave of italians has come to america, and the fiat 500 with beats audio

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>> bill: hey, good morning everybody! what do you say? it is good to see you today. thank you for joining us on the "full court press" here on current tv this thursday morning. february 21. coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours. and bringing you up to date on good news of the day. what's happening here in our nation's capital. around the country and around the globe. giving. >> chance to tell us what it means to you by giving us a call at 1-866-55-press. among other issues we'll be talking about here in our final hour together, the former congressman, jesse jackson jr. pleading guilty yesterday to misuse of campaign funds. it looks like he and his wife both will be spending some time in jail. florida governor rick scott does a big reversal and now says he supports obamacare at least the expansion of medicaid under

obamacare. and we're only eight days away now from the sequester and it looks like it's going to happen. all of that we'll get into with our guest and with you. first, we get the latest, today's current news update from lisa ferguson. joining us from los angeles. good morning. >> hey bill. good morning everyone. the entire country still bracing for the sequester scheduled to take place next friday. now, yes this will impact military personnel and civilians serving overseas but it wills take its toll on you. these cuts are across the board meaning almost no domestic program is safe. now mainly it affects any time you interact with the government meaning long waits at the airport, thanks to furloughed tsa screeners and some potential delayed flights. expect national parks to reduce their hours. the service is losing $110 million to its annual budget and more significantly, we'll see big cuts to education and public health. about 70,000 children will be

forced out of headstart early education programs and more than 350,000 americans will be left without primary and preventive healthcare like vaccinations for the flu. this wills take a big toll on the unemployed. benefits there expected to degrees by about $400 a month. impacting nearly four million americans. congress is not back in session until next week giving lawmakers just four days to reach a compromise. the sequester will not likely tank the economy though. federal spending should still hit 23% of gdp by 2023 but also don't expect it to solve many problems. we're still on track for the debt to hit 100% of the nation's gdp. we'll be right back.

billy zane stars in barabbas. coming in march to reelz. to find reelz in your area, go to reelz.com

>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: president obama's approval, the latest bloomberg poll, the highest it's been since september of 2009. 55% approval rating. and congress has a 9% approval rating and they think they're going to blame the sequester on him. idiots! good morning everybody. great to see you this morning. it is a thursday, february 21. this is the "full court press." welcome to the program. thank you for joining us whether you're watching on current tv or listening on your local progressive talk radio station good to have you with us. we want to hear from you at phone at 1-866-55-press. the old-fashioned way to join us if you will. by twitter on twitter at bpshow or on facebook. friend us on facebook. send us your comments on facebook at

facebook.com/billpressshow. we really want to go deep into the issues of the day. we get somebody who knows a hell of a lot more about it than we do. bob cusack is the managing editor of "the hill." covers both ends of pennsylvania avenue. >> good morning, guys. >> bill: good to you have back. all of the team members here. peter ogborn and dan henning. >> we're here. >> good morning. >> bill: with phil backert on the phones and cyprian bowlding, our videographer. bob, the biggest event of our lives, nothing more important you have your bar mitzvah and then you have the white house correspondent's dinner. >> yes. huge. it is a huge event. every year it just gets bigger and bigger. i liked it when it was a little smaller. it's gotten a little commercial but still a lot of fun. >> bill: we complain about this every year. it is true. it has been overtaken by the celebrities. you know, they have their

oscars. this sunday night, they'll have their oscar party. let us have our damn white house correspondent's dinner where it originally started as a chance for the correspondents to get together with some of their sources and have -- and just socialize, right? >> right. >> bill: it has grown into the washington people get pushed aside. nobody comes there to see senators or members of congress or members of the white house press corps. they come to see the hollywood celebrities. >> it used to be easy to crash the parties. now you need an i.d. card. they check. there's no way you can crash it. >> bill: and, of course, the president always gets -- whoever the president is gets good writers, funny talk followed by the talk show host or the stand-up comic jimmy kimmel did a great job last year. seth meyers before him i thought really knocked it out of the park. this year, they announced yesterday the star talk show host conan o'brien. >> apparently he did it years ago, i think.

>> bill: 1995. >> i was not at that one. >> bill: i was there. not so good. bill clinton was the president. you have to remember the o.j. simpson trial was happening at the time. 1995. there was a famous judge who presided over the trial. here's conan o'brien. >> i got the invitation, i was thrilled i would be speaking in the same room with the most powerful man in the country. and then i heard judge ito canceled. [ laughter ] but you move on. >> bill: we remember judge ito, right? >> i had forgotten him. now i do recall. >> bill: here's somebody else you may have forgotten. to show -- this really shows this comment i think from conan o'brien back in 1995 what an inside crowd attends this dinner. >> i'm a talk show host. [ laughter ] you know folks i remember i

was really excited to get my own talk show. then i found out roger ailes had one. [ laughter ] what's next? cooking with ira magaziner? >> bill: remember ira magaziner? >> i do. >> bill: he was the head of hillary clinton's healthcare task force at the white house and was reviled at the time because he would not tell anybody -- it was all -- all secret. all secret. all of those meetings were held in secret. came up with 1,000 page document which was a disaster. >> o'brien had to be better than rich little. >> rich little might be the worst one who's ever done it. they had him after stephen colbert who went, according to some people, so far over the line that they went super safe with rich little and boy he stunk. >> bill: my very first one was when don imus did it. it was embarrassing. all right. 11 minutes after the hour. bob is here for the hour as a

"friend of bill." lots to talk about. we'll be joined by dan mcwhorter from mandiant. the firm that issued the big report this week, scary report on cyber security. but first... >> this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this thursday. a big revelation from a former republican senator. pete domenici of new mexico who represented that state for 36 years until 2008, telling the albuquerque journal that he fathered a son out of wedlock with the daughter of another former senator but he kept that secret for 30 years. the son is adam, now a lawyer in nevada. grandson of former nevada senator paul lexalt. domenici has eight children with his wife and he says he has apologized to her "as best he can." >> he has eight kids? >> and then plus one.

>> bill: eight wasn't enough. family values when he was in the united states senate. i must say, i admire the fact that they accepted the responsibility here. she raised a great kid apparently. this guy is a very successful attorney in las vegas. she's an -- i know michelle. i haven't seen her in a long time. wonderful person. senator domenici accepted responsibility helped raise the kid and support the kid. they kept it quiet. somebody found out about it and was going to blow it up on twitter or facebook and they said we'll just tell the facts. >> after steve cohen -- >> i was going to say it is amazing that in this day and age, elected officials can have secret babies and secret children that no one knew about. and the story is sort of coming out on their own terms. >> bill: strom thurmond, baby. >> the first lady is heading out on the road to celebrate the third anniversary of the let's

move campaign. michelle obama visiting jimmy fallin's late-night program also "good morning america" and several other shows and many schools across the country in a trip to promote the anti-obesity movement and she's making a big announcement on a new physical activity initiative in schools in chicago later today. >> bill: going out so people can see her bangs. >> which is now on the new official white house portrait of hers. as reported by "the hill" newspaper. >> if they are to be trusted. hillary clinton will not be missing her secretary of state salary, a measly $186,000 per year. buzzfeed reporting on the speaking circuit she will be earning north of $200,000 per speech. there is a very exclusive group of people who make that much. only her husband, bill clinton and former governor arnold schwarzenegger are known to pull in that much per speech. behind that, george w. bush,

dick cheney and al gore earn between $100,000 and $200,000 per speech. >> bill: i will repeat again for those of you out there looking for a speaker for your next event if you can't afford hillary clinton, i will do it for half the price. [ laughter ] >> you do a great job at bar mitzvahs kid's birthday parties. >> you're a balloon man in a pinch. >> bill: i want to get -- we want to talk about the sequester which everybody is talking about. so boring. but it is so scary but so boring. a couple of issues. congress related or legislatively, i want to start with. yesterday here in the u.s. district court former congressman jesse jackson jr. pleading guilty to gross misuse of campaign funds and his wife, at the same time a former alderman -- alderperson or whatever, from chicago pleading guilty to filing false i.r.s. forms and you know, it is just sad to see this.

and the stuff we were buying, it is so weird. the $43,000 rolex. washers and dryers for the home and memorabilia. >> michael jackson stuff. there is -- when members of congress, they don't make a lot of money compared to like the hillary clinton who can go out and get $200,000 for a speech. but they make good money. there are perks on top of that. as far as they can use campaign funds to buy and ipad and say that's campaign-related. you can make the case just like on taxes, it may be a thin case but you can make the case. when you're buying this type of stuff for personal use -- >> bill: multiple flat screen tvs and stuff. >> you're going to go to jail. it is very rare that this kind of charge is made against -- has to be crystal clear. clearly, this was an egregious use of power. >> bill: he admitted to that. i lived off my campaign. is what he was saying. they were living high on the hog using campaign funds over a

period of this long. they had to know it was wrong. he and his wife and they were both into it. and filing false documents proving they filed false documents because they knew what they were doing was wrong. they had to hide it. it's so sad. >> in this situation try to cover it up. obviously we know why he was so depressed and was despondent because he was headed to jail. >> i think this feeds into the stereotype that a lot of people have about their elected officials that they are corrupt and that they do this type of thing all the time. and have a story like this where he was doing exactly what people feared that their elected leaders do. it is sort -- it sort of sucks for the process you know. >> bill: you know, what you said about the despair and thedy spondency is correct. -- the despondency. it was the despondency that led him to do this. i think the fact he had done it and realized he was going to get nailed is what drove him over

the edge. >> he knew it was wrong. it is bad. as peter mentioned. 535 members of congress, most do not do this. but it doesn't help congressional approval ratings. >> bill: on another issue -- >> they actually have approval ratings? does anybody approve? >> bill: who are the 9%? the president, of course, has made a high priority of gun safety. he's put his ideas out there. legislation in the united states senate that's very strong as well. and president joe biden has his -- one of the big things is ban on assault weapons messages you do not need an assault weapon. joe biden has a good idea. has an idea about how to deal with that. here he is speaking out yesterday. >> jill, if there's ever a problem, walk out on the balcony here, walk out put that double barrel shotgun and fire two blasts. outside the house. i promise you whoever is coming

in -- you don't need an ar-15. >> bill: buy a shotgun, he says. jay carney told us yesterday that the vice president has two shotguns a 12 gauge and a 20 gauge double barrel, two double barrel shotguns. is this helping for him to say buy a shotgun? buy a shotgun? >> it is helping us in the media. slow "newsweek." but it is joe biden. he's so amusing and he says -- he's very plain-spoken. this is consistent. he said something similar in the debates. he was skeet shooting back five or six years ago. >> it didn't happen. >> he's not a big hunter but he's owned shotguns and you know, it's interesting "usa today" did an interesting survey of members of congress. a fair amount of them including democrats own guns. so a lot of these guys know what they're talking about. they've actually shot guns.

>> we were laughing at the briefing yesterday about joe biden saying go out and buy a shotgun. doesn't this undercut the president's message. but others have pointed out it might reinforce the president's message. what it does -- it undercuts the nra message that the white house is anti-gun and wants to take your gun away. the vice president saying hell, i own two shotguns. >> so far -- >> bill: crazy like a fox maybe. >> the nra has assembled with that. a lot of people think they've been too aggressive. coming right out of the gates. the house i think republican house, it won't be as strong as the senate bill. they're going to pass some type of gun bill that would keep, i think, guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and prisoners. assault weapon ban no. will it have gun trafficking possibly. maybe some type of background checks. republicans feel the heat on this. john boehner said to his guys, we need to have a conversation about guns. nra has definitely stumbled. >> bill: for the record, i

think it was my 14th birthday, my present was a double barrel 12-gauge shotgun. i don't know whatever happened to it. for duck hunting. or maybe it was a 20 gauge. double barrel. >> do you use -- did you use it a lot? >> bill: with my dad or uncle duck hunting. >> how old were you when you got your first ak-47? >> bill: ask me how old i was when i shot my first duck? i shot at a lot of them. 20 minutes after the hour now. we'll talk sequester when we come back with bob cusack because everybody in washington says it's going to happen. we'll find out when we come back on the "full court press." >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: it is 25 minutes after the hour now. cyber security next. right now, fiscal sanity maybe. and the sequester bob cusack, managing editor of "the hill," thehill.com. check it out. and check out the pundit's blog where you'll hear from me every once in awhile at "the hill." so bob, i don't know anybody in washington who doesn't think the sequester is going to happen. because republicans seem to think it is not -- they can survive. >> they want cuts and -- >> bill: you agree it will happen? >> it will happen at least for a month and possibly -- >> bill: it has to go longer. if it kicks in, somebody told me yesterday if they can't get out of it for the rest of the year. >> i think there could be a deal at the end of march because

that's when they've gotta strike some type of deal. right now, if congress does nothing -- >> bill: because the budget kicks in. >> to fund the government that, runs out march 27th. maybe when they're striking that deal they strike a sequester deal. but i wouldn't hold your breath. i think it will go into effect. it could be here for awhile. >> bill: republicans believe that they're not vulnerable on this issue. because, as john boehner does, he calls it the president's sequester and they believe they can -- they'll be unscathed by this because they'll just blame it on president obama. >> they have to pick their fight picking the fight on -- they don't want to shut down the government. the debt limit, i don't think they'll pick a fight there. here, it is easy to pick a fight because they don't have to do anything. now, obama's approval ratings just hit a three-year high. so this is going to be very difficult. remember in 2009 after obama won the first time, congressional republicans didn't attack the president. they attacked nancy pelosi and

harry reid. they avoided talking about -- >> but here, they have to go one on one with the president because he's the one that they're fighting with. it is not really harry reid and nancy pelosi leading the charge. >> bill: the other thing they say, we can absorb this. it won't be so bad. $1.2 trillion, that's over ten years. yet the pentagon comes out yesterday with a -- not with a study, they reported that they've already told 800,000 civilian employees you're going to face a furlough if this kicks in. that means they take one day a week off. that's a 20% cut in their pay. again, i'm trying to get in the mindset of republicans who think it is a good idea to let this happen. >> well, even unless -- if you look at the defense spending that we would go back, this would roughly be what the defense department was spending in 2006-2007 when they're waging two wars. maybe the defense department could cut back.

the pentagon has never been able to do a full audit. it is risky because the white house put out a memo. i'm sure you saw it on how this would affect middle-class families. >> bill: 300 and some pages. >> anything that happens from this point on whether it is a natural disaster or a food outbreak, the white house can say well, we told you. sequester. sequester is to blame. whether it is true or not if will be difficult for republicans to say well, no, it has nothing to do with that. that's the risky play for republicans right now. >> bill: as if that's not enough to worry about somebody could be hacking your computer. we'll find out about that coming up next. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: welcome back to the "full court press" on this february 21. bob cusack managing editor of "the hill" is in studio this hour as a "friend of bill." as if there wasn't already enough to worry about here in washington, d.c., a couple of days ago report coming out from a company called mandiant, located in alexandria, virginia. not far from the capitol. they've been asked to look into the hacking that "the new york times" had discovered had been taking place in its computer files and they released their report that showed that the hacking is not limited to "the new york times." it is a lot broader than we thought. a lot scarier than we thought. dan mcwhorter is director of

the intel team for mandiant, joining us on our news line this morning. hey, dan thanks for being there. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: just give us the executive summary of how bad this is and who's behind it. >> we've been doing investigations for about nine years as a company. for the last six years we've investigated and collected data on this group. it is one of 20 groups we trace back to china origins amongst other groups that we follow. but in the report, we lay out you know, 60 pages of detailed findings. it is very data thick and analysis thick over 3,000 digital indicators to help detect and find the threats. in the report, we build up the case for why we believe that this is traced back to the pla the people's liberation army inside of china in particular inside of their third department second bureau which is a unit we call -- a unit that

is called 61398. >> bill: in addition to the "new york times," who else were they targeting? >> they've targeted a lot. we found -- again we've been investigating this for six years. along with other victim -- other attacks. but with this group in particular they've compromised over 141 victims over six years that we had visibility into. what's really interesting is it spanned over 20 different industries. we had victims from public affairs to construction, aerospace education legal engineering, electronics i.t., the list goes on and on. >> bill: big names right? i've seen bloomberg. i've seen apple twitter facebook. not just "the new york times." other news organizations, too. how about government agencies? >> there are some focused on government agencies and defense agencies. this group wasn't. they did hit areas like that but they weren't massively focused

on it. >> bob cusack with the hill, dan. congress has been debating this, as you know. there have been different bills in the house and senate. do you think that there's a piece of legislation that would help solve this problem and what do you think is the motivation motivation -- china's motivation in particular? >> i'll speak to the motivation question first. i think it is definitely to improve their economic power in the world. they have set a very short time line to become a dominant first world country and in order to do that in such a short period of time, they need their industries to grow rapidly. the other thing to keep in mind is that the communist country your separation between industry and government is nearly none. they're very overlapped. so the government has a huge interest in providing any type of information they can to industry. any kind of intellectual property. any kind of edge for efficiency.

that could help make their industries do better in the market. as far as legislation i think the good news is there's a lot of positive momentum. i don't think that legislation alone can solve this problem. but i think anything we can do on the diplomacy side to put pressure on china to not do this is a welcome first step. >> bill: i want to ask you again about how serious this is. if they could penetrate let's say, our electric grid or the air-traffic control system, or our transportation system, amtrak or whatever, could they shut it down? >> sure. it is very serious. you know -- >> bill: sure? hello! right. this is really -- i guess the term cyber warfare is not too strong, is it? >> no. up arersberger estimated in 2012 we lost $300 billion in theft of trade secrets so even on the

financial side, the economic side which people don't get as freaked out about as when you start talking about critical infrastructure. even the financial side, losing the trade secrets has massive impact. it is one of the things, you don't always notice it immediately. a few years later. you know. that our businesses can't compete as well in the global market because all their interktual property and r&d has been stolen. the critical infrastructure piece is interesting. the same level of access it takes to steal documents from a computer, the same level of access you don't need to have anymore power in the computer system. you can delete files. you can corrupt things. you can run malicious software. it is all the same. >> in your research, dan did you find that -- china has a lot vested in the united states. the united states economy takes a hit, they take a hit as well. are there other people out there like terrorists that obviously would want to take down the electric grid where china may not want that?

>> yeah. that's the interesting thing about china that people have been asking is how is their motivation different? there aren't too many other different countries we witnessed doing this almost exclusively for financial gain. they've had access to systems that they could have year you wanted and -- that they could have corrupted and attacked but they've chosen not to. if you had a different organization like a terrorist organization yeah, i mean they could -- theoretically gain the same access. it is really not that difficult. it is easy to play offense and very difficult to play defense. >> bill: you can find out more about this report from mandiant at their web site, mandiant. we'll have the link on our web site too. m-a-n-d-i-a-n-t.com. dan, can we really point fingers at china here when at least reportedly the united states used the same kind of system, of

a worm, to undo iran's nuclear project? >> yeah, i think one thing you have to consider scope and the other one is the intent. there's lots and lots of governments that you know, hack or do computer network operations for national security reasons. to understand military technologies motivations things like that. of course, the government, the u.s. government does that as well. what's different about china is the scope. like in our report, the 141 victims, we're just a small company. 300 people. and yet we had visibility and 141 vices across the 20 -- victims across the 20 industries. literally thousands of thousands of files of drawings and plans and r&d research leaving these companies. we don't and nor do any of our allies that we know of, hack for the benefit of our economy or for the benefit of the industries within our countries.

>> bill: president obama -- i remember -- and bob you -- first year in office, john harwood from cnbc was interviewing him. he said what keeps you up at night. what's the one problem that maybe you hadn't anticipated keeps you up. he said cyber security. i went whoa. i never heard anybody use that word before. so he's been on this and aware of this for a long time. i don't know, dan but the president did put forth a program or a plan or some executive action early on to deal with this. has that had any impact, dan? >> we've seen an escalation in attacks over the last two years. could be that we're growing as a company and we have more visibility as we get more clients. but we certainly have not seen any decrease over the last four or five or six years. >> as you know, dan china wasn't too happy with your report. what has been the backlash, if

there has been any and has there been any cyber security backlash? >> we've heard reports -- especially from. >> reporter: s in china they can't access our web site. i don't think that's unexpected. >> bill: they have publicly denied the link to the chinese military, haven't they? >> oh, yeah. of course. that's the same rhetoric that they've been saying for years. >> bill: by the way, how did you find them? there are some stories, there was some middle man you were able to get to who cooperated with you? this may be a state secret. i'm not sure you're going to tell us. >> no. basically what we've done is compile the data we've been looking at for the last six years around december, we said hey, wouldn't it be interesting. we know this group so well. our real main concern is could we still track them if they wanted to do continue to do operations. we felt with this group we knew them so well inside and out and every way, front to back, that we wouldn't lose track of them so to speak if they continued to

hack even after we explained what all we knew. it would cause them to have to retool, to rearchitect. they would have to go through massive change. so anyways that's what made us decide to do it. we took our data we've had over the last six years and some of the analysis we had already started. they gave us all kinds of great hints. one of the attackers likes to use a password that basically gives up the exact bureau office and section that he is inside the pla. so you know, when you translate that over into chinese the password he uses translates exactly to which bureau he's in. that was a good help. there are also two types of victims. >> bill: not surprise the attacker. >> the victims in these things, too, i'll explain real quick. there is an end user who is the victim who loses their ip. people use their internet connection so it looks like they're the ones launching the

attack. so when we get access to their systems, we can watch the attackers launch the attack. we were able to glean a lot of information from that including where. >> bill: this is a whole new world. not for you dan. but i think for most americans. dan mcwhorter thanks so much for your time this morning dan. appreciate it very much. >> thank you, bill and bob. >> bill: managing director of the intel team for mandiant. again, mandiant.com. let's talk about it when we come back. bob cusack from "the hill," managing editor from "the hill" as a "friend of bill." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy.

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: 12 minutes before the top of the hour on this thursday. visiting with bob cusack, managing editor of "the hill" here in studio with us. peter, before we get back to cyber warfare. >> quick story while we're talking about technology. it has been rumored google would unveil their google glasses. the glasses that you wear that can take video and pictures. they released a new video yesterday that sort of confirmed it is out there. that they're coming. you put these glasses on. it has like a little block situation up at the top corner. you can take photos with it. you can send messages, e-mails launch a video chat, hangout you can conduct a search, get driving directions, get the weather, all of these on the glasses that you wear. the prototype, you can preorder for the low low price of $1500.

>> bill: i'm surprised it is that low. there is a story in the new york times in the business section about the big issue now with these computer glasses or what are they? >> they're calling them google glasses. or gaggle glass. -- or google glass. >> bill: they want them to be stylish like ray-bans. >> don't want to be nerdy. >> i'll tweet out a link so you can see what they look like. >> bill: i'm sorry. i don't want -- i spend a lot of time on my computer but i don't need it in my eye. >> you'll be wearing it in a few years. >> bill: i will not. of course i said i would never have an iphone either. you know, why not on your wrist watch. i could see that. >> i could see the wrist watch. more than your glasses. >> do you know how you work? do you use your eyeball? >> voice commands. >> it is all voice commands. you can say google glass send an e-mail to blank and it has a

little screen on your glasses. you can see sort of what's happening, superimposed. >> bill: up here in the corner of your glasses. it is bad enough texting and walking now. >> this is ray lahood's worst nightmare. [ laughter ] >> bill: walking down the street and watching, you know, a movie on your -- no. >> but it is hands-free. it may take up what you're looking at. >> bill: what's your take on the cyber security? this is pretty scary stuff. >> you talk to some members of the intelligence committees and they say the nation doesn't really focus on this. is that just like dan was saying our electrical grid is very vulnerable. there are three parts. electric grid has the western part the eastern part and texas. so the three parts, you can go after any -- can you imagine if we had no power? >> bill: look at the air-traffic control system.

you know. that has happened where they've lost power right in a major market and they're out. it has ripple effects across the land. if you can knock it out across the land or the transportation system, you know, the ports i mean hospital records or whatever. >> i think -- >> bill: it is all vulnerable. everything more and more is online. >> it is all online. i don't think it will grab the patient's attention until it either actually happens or there's some version of the day after movie of cyber security that you see that this is a real dangerous -- >> bill: so you think about that. and you think about then drone warfare. we're entering into a whole new era, right? a whole new age. >> and members of congress as well as president obama have put out the warnings. in some respects politically to say i tried to get people to act. it's gotten bogged down.

the legislation has gotten bogged down in mandates. industry has been concerned about that. this is a serious problem. >> bill: as great as the threat of islamic terrorists or extremists or whatever and we see that and they're out there and they're still planning attacks against the united states this could be much more serious. >> oh, yeah. gao did a report last year. government agencies are ill-equipped and they've got of course plenty of data. >> bill: one suicide bomber. might kill 100 people in a mall. but this is -- god knows. >> that's right. >> grids go down, planes don't know where they're going. trains don't know where they're going. >> bill: how do we fight it? and are we equipped to fight it? and it sounds like we're using this technology ourselves like we are drones but of course, you know, we're never going to use them the wrong way, we say right. but other countries will get this technology and they're not

all going to be friendly and certainly, look at china. right now, what he was saying is it seems -- what i took away from him is china's doing it but they're doing it for economic interests. so they get an economic edge. other countries will have a different kind of edge in mind. >> that's right. this is going to be something we'll be talking about for the next five to ten years. as you mention with stuxnet, it is like spying. everybody does it. but the defense department, there have been reports they're going on offense a lot more. you wonder how much -- we really need to shore up the defense of the country. >> bill: i'm scared. >> hold me, bob. >> bill: why do we have that guy on, anyhow? i was feeling good until then. but it is always good to have you in studio, bob. bob cusack from "the hill," thehill.com. i'll be back with today's parting shot. >> announcer: this is the "bill

press show." the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

>> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: believe me, i love going to the white house briefings every day but sometimes they drive me crazy like yesterday. all right so unless congress acts as we've been talking, the sequester is going to kick in on march 1 with disastrous consequences for domestic programs and for our military readiness. nobody wants that to happen. not president obama. and he says not even john boehner or mitch mcconnell but republicans refuse to